Effect of blood contamination on shear bond strength of brackets bonded with conventional and self-etching primers

This study assessed the effect of blood contamination on the shear bond strength and bond failure site of 2 different orthodontic primers (Transbond XT and Transbond Plus Self-Etching Primer, both from 3M Unitek, Monrovia, Calif) used with adhesive-precoated brackets. Four different enamel surface conditions were tested: (1) dry, (2) blood contamination before priming, (3) blood contamination after priming, and (4) blood contamination before and after priming. Noncontaminated enamel surfaces had the highest bond strengths for both conventional and self-etching primers, which produced almost the same strength values. Under blood-contaminated conditions, both primers showed significantly reduced shear bond strengths. For the conventional primer, no significant differences were reported among the blood-contaminated groups, whereas when the self-etching primer was used, condition 4 reduced significantly the bond strength values. Significant differences in debond locations were found among the groups bonded with the 2 primers under the various enamel surface conditions.